The Whitey saga

Sunday

Aug 11, 2013 at 6:00 AM

When James "Whitey" Bulger was captured in 2011 in Santa Monica, CA, after 16 years on the run, certain upcoming events were seen as foregone conclusions. We expected that the 83-year old crime boss would be found guilty of horrendous offenses, that he would be spending the rest of his life in prison, and that his trial would be a veritable soap opera.

After 35 days of testimony by 72 witnesses, and six hours of closing arguments, defense lawyers tried to portray Mr. Bulger as a victim of government corruption, a man betrayed by former associates who threw him under the bus to protect their own skin. The defense tried to keep the focus on government misconduct, rather than James Bulger's alleged crimes.

Prosecutors presented him as a murderous thug, "one of the most vicious, violent criminals ever to walk the streets of Boston," according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Wyshak. He ridiculed defense lawyers' efforts to paint Mr. Bulger as a man with his own code of ethics who barred drugs from his South Boston neighborhood and refused to be a snitch for law enforcement agencies.

"This is not some Robin Hood story about a guy who kept angel dust and heroin out of Southie," Mr. Wyshak contended. "He's still more sensitive about his reputation of (not being) an FBI informant than his reputation as a murderous thug." The denial that Whitey was an informant was a recurring theme during the trial despite a hefty file that indicates that he had provided information to the FBI from 1975 to 1990.

Mr. Bulger's defense lawyers conceded that while their client may be guilty of some of the crimes he is charged with, he did not commit the most heinous murders and wasn't an FBI informant. The defense focused particularly on exculpating him in the murder of two women, Debra Davis and Debra Hussey, arguing that former associate Stephen Flemmi had a personal motive to commit those murders.

They argued that the government conspired against Mr. Bulger by offering some of his former associates — convicted murderers John Martorano, Kevin Weeks and Steve "The Rifleman" Flemmi — lenient plea deals in exchange for pointing their fingers at Mr. Bulger. "The government is buying the testimony of these witnesses," J. W. Carney Jr., one of the defense lawyers, charged. He urged the jury to "find strength in the oath" they took and to "stand up to government abuse."

In exchange for their cooperation, Martorano served only 12 years in prison after admitting to 20 murders, and is now free. Weeks served five years after admitting to be an accessory in five murders and is also a free man. Flemmi escaped the death penalty he was facing for 10 murders and has implicated Whitey Bulger in all of them. Plea bargaining has its purpose, but this might not be much of a bargain for the justice system.

Whitey Bulger was charged in a sweeping racketeering indictment with participating in 19 murders, as well as the extortion of bookmakers, drug dealers and businessmen. He was also charged with money laundering and stockpiling high-powered weapons, including six machine guns. When he was captured in California in 2011, he had a stockpile of automatic weapons, as well as more than $800,000 in cash. He refused to testify in his recent trial, calling the process a sham.

Interwoven in the legal proceedings is the saga of personal and ethnic loyalties. In 1995, FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr., alerted Mr. Bulger to flee before his imminent indictment, thus enabling the gangster to go into hiding, where he remained for 16 years. Mr. Connolly leaked information to Mr. Bulger because he wanted to protect him as a favor to his brother, William Bulger, former president of the Massachusetts Senate and president of the University of Massachusetts. Mr. Connolly grew up in the same South Boston housing development as the Bulger brothers and had been mentored by Billy Bulger.

The Bulger brothers' saga is a nasty piece of Massachusetts politics. We have criminal brother Whitey whose protecting influence extends over younger brother Billy, a high-ranking public official, whose lingering presence in the background lends Whitey an implied status. After presiding over the state Senate for nearly 20 years, the Bulger name allowed the younger brother to take a job for which he was entirely unqualified: president of the University of Massachusetts.

It was astonishing to watch as trustees of the state's largest institution of higher learning lined up to find a valid reason to appoint him to the position. So was trustees' reluctance to get rid of him when Gov. Mitt Romney insisted that Billy Bulger must go. Mr. Bulger has been quite sensitive about any reference to his relationship with his brother. He took offense to some comments in my column and did not hesitate to let me know about his displeasure.

Mr. Connolly, who took bribes from James Bulger, fabricated his informant file and falsely credited him with providing information against the Mafia, paid the price, too. He served 10 years in prison for warning Whitey to flee in 1995, and is now serving a 40-year sentence for his role in the murder of a Boston businessman in Florida.

Robert Z. Nemeth's column appears regularly in the Sunday Telegram.

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